An open letter to the South Dakota Legislators

Let’s be LAST in education!

Let’s make this the LAST year we undervalue the worth of all educational professionals.

Let’s make this the LAST year we foolishly cling to the belief that size doesn’t matter.

Let’s make this the LAST year that arbitrary tests evaluate learning.

Let’s make this the LAST year we “make do” with what we can rather than attract what we want and need.

Let’s make this the LAST year we ashamedly have to say we’re LAST in teacher pay.

We who taught you how to read and write:

We who taught you how to add and subtract:

We who taught you how to dribble a ball and walk a balance beam:

We who taught you how to draw, paint, sing, and play:

We who taught you history and civics:

We who taught you foreign language and how to balance your checkbook:

We who taught you the scientific method:

We who instilled in you the desire to serve and the ability to reason…

We, your teachers, urge you to place educational finance as your FIRST priority!

You have the responsibility.  You have the resources.  You have to act now to make an educational difference that will LAST.

Heading home

There is a quiet beauty of the plains at sundown.  Looking out of our warm car, I see the vast expanse of white.  Drifts hugging fence lines, reflecting an eerie white.  A full moon hanging in the east, waiting for the sun to set so it can rule the sky.  And the feeling of satisfaction that life is good.  We choose to live in a place of seasonal beauty, and tonight, although the dashboard proclaims that it is eight degrees outside, the warmth resplendent in that choice strikes home!  

Random Reactions

Facebook...my response.

It's extremely hard to believe that any social medium can provide so much anti-social dissonance.  Radical thinking, either to the left or to the right, does exactly what our legislative process has mastered...encourage the skill of non compromise.  How can increased background checks for gun sales and/ownership possibly be a bad thing?  How is it possible for the president to be wrong in EVERY decision he has been forced to reach due to lack of legislative reasonableness?  How is it possible for a party affiliation to demonize an individual?  How can anyone in the name of their "god" dare to judge another?  Instead of hate, offer solutions.  Instead of bigotry, offer tolerance of opposing views.  Instead of venting, celebrate the good in your lives.  We are profoundly impacted by those with whom we associate.  Imagine the good we could accomplish if we practiced the power of the positive!  We have the right to our opinions.  We have the right to express them.  But more importantly, we have the responsibility to leave the world better than we found it.  Negativity, by its definition, leaves less, not more.  The world is not a bed of roses... But oh, how much better it would be if we could accentuate the flower, not the thorn!